Amortentia
by So Do I Orange One. So Do I
Summary: When in a potions lesson, learning to make Amortentia, Remus Lupin lets slip that the scent of the love potion is, to him, dog fur... The fragrance of fellow marauder, Sirius Black. James, being the good friend that he is, tell Sirius all about it so that together they can poke fun at poor Moony.
1. Part 1

Snape was struggling to free himself from James' spell, and his face was going purple as all the blood rushed to his face. Lily Evans then came marching up to James.

"Potter!" she exclaimed, "Let him go!"

"If I do, will you go out with me, Evans?" James smirked at her, running his hand through his puff of hair, looking her up and down. He always was a little brash.

Lily scowled at him, and as James was distracted, Snape managed to pick up his wand, and he disarmed James, but Sirius immediately stupefied him. Sirius looked at me, grinning, and I shook my head. It wasn't fair, two against one, even against Snivellus. Sirius' face fell, and he lowered his wand, and Snape brushed himself down, still red in the face, even though he was no longer upside down.

"I don't need your help," he spat at Lily, "Mudblood." It was Lily's turn to go red.

"Right," she stuttered, "Okay. See you later," she turned on her heel and stamped away.

"See you later, Evans!" called James. Lily didn't turn around, but waved her hand behind her in a rude sign that muggles use.

Snape had stood there, frozen, and as out attention turned back to him, he sneered at us and stormed off. Sirius looked to me, as if to ask if he should chase after Snivellus. I shook my head again. He nodded and smiled. I grinned and cocked my head, and he raised his eyebrow. We always could communicate like this. And I knew exactly what he was saying; we'd just been discussing James' crush on Lily. Peter just gawped at us.

It then became time for lessons. We all scampered off to potions, and I noticed Lily trailing forlornly behind us.

* * *

Professor Slughorn stood at the front of the class next to a cauldron full of potion.

"Class," he said, "Today I am going to be teaching you about Amortentia, which is a love potion that can cause strong infatuation. I don't usually teach this to classes so young as yourselves, but as you are a particularly skilled class..." He smiled at Lily, who grimaced. That wasn't like her.

I paired with James, while Peter went with Sirius, and we all set about making the Amortentia. It was quite complex, but me and James both quite enjoyed potions, so we were among the few groups who managed to complete the potion successfully, as well as Lily and her partner doing quite well.

"Excellent first tries," Slughorn said when we all had brought our concoctions up to the front of the class at the end of the lesson. He tested each potion by smelling them, as presumably he knew what they ought to smell like for him.

"Everyone come and look at these ones, and congratulations to the successful teams." I went to look at Lily's potion, and I didn't notice as James came up behind me as I smelt it. Suddenly he asked, "What do you smell?" and I was so startled, I blurted out, "Chocolate, dog fur and ink," and it took us both a moment to realise what I'd said, and then James smirked.

"Hey Moony," he said, "Are you mooning after Padfoot?" then he sauntered away, cackling as though he'd just made the wittiest joke ever. When I caught my reflection in the knife on the worktop, I was white as a sheet.

* * *

Later, when I got back to the common room, James and Sirius were there waiting for me, grinning and laughing at the expression on my face. I was a fool to think that Prongs would keep quiet.

"Hey, Moony," Sirius walked over and put his hand on my shoulder. "What you been doing? Making any potions? Howling at the moon in anguish?" James was bent double in silent laughter. It wasn't that funny. But I just decided to go along with it.

"Actually I've been bathing in rose petals. Can't you tell?" Sirius sniggered and clapped me on the back before going to sit by the fire. James fetched Peter from the dormitory, and together they went off to the library.I went and sat in the armchair next to Sirius, and frowned silently into the fire. I tried to bite my fingernails, but they were already bitten down, so instead I gripped the armrests, my jaw clenched.

Suddenly, something brushed against the back of my hand, and I jumped and pulled my hand back. I looked up just in time to see Sirius' hand pull away from me, and his gaze drop to his lap. Had he just... No. Of course he didn't.

"Moony," he looked up at me inquisitively, "Is it true? James said that the Amortentia... Do you...?" I smiled meekly at him and nodded, and then to my surprise his face broke out in a grin.

"Do you want to know what I could smell?" I nodding, smiling properly now. "I smelt the ink that you always have all over your hands, and the chocolate that you're always munching on, and I could smell night, if night has a smell." I couldn't tell if he meant what I thought he did, but as I was mulling it over, he got up and came over, crouching in front of me. My hands were clasped together on my lap, and he gently took hold of them, smiling mischievously. I had trouble keeping my breathing steady as I leaned forward and gently kissed him.

* * *

I smiled all through dinner, exchanging furtive glances with Padfoot as I ate speedily. We'd agreed that if there was time before we had to go back to the dormitory, that we would meet in the room of requirement. James, as usual, was talking very loudly, and he didn't notice that anything was different, and Peter looked suspicious, but he never speaks so I didn't worry about it. When I was finished, I told everyone that I was going to the library to do some research. As I was leaving I noticed James winking at Sirius, and whisper loudly, "Maybe he's looking up some love potions to slip you, Padfoot," and I grinned because he was so wrong, but kind of right at the same time.

I waited in the room of requirement for fifteen minutes before Sirius appeared, but I had my book so the time slipped by easily enough.

"Hey," I greeted him, and he smiled broadly. "What took you so long?" I asked. He paused for a second before replying.

"Peter was following me around, so I had to try to get him away. I told him to go and find James, which should take a while because he slipped off in his invisibility cloak." He grinned and we sat down together, and he leant in towards me, so I put my arms around him and as his face came close to mine, I shut my eyes.

* * *

Over the next few weeks we snuck around, meeting when we could. Peter grew more and more suspicious, but he's not the type to snitch on his friends, so I trusted him. Sirius was a bit more paranoid, and I caught him threatening Peter a few times. James was oblivious, but he never was very observant.

The real trouble came along when one day, we were lying on Sirius' bed together while everyone was at lunch, when James came into the room. He froze, and Sirius sat bolt upright, pale as a ghost. I could feel myself blushing, but not as much as James, who had gone as red as a cherry. I was embarrassed, but Sirius was flat out panicking, breathing quickly, looking slightly sick. He got off the bed as James shot him a look of death, and he marched up to Sirius and smacked him squarely across the face before storming out of the room, and before I could ask what was going on, Sirius had darted after him.

I was so stunned that I just sat there, until James' furious voice pierced my daze, and I jumped up and ran out to see what was happening.

"How could you! How dare you!" James growled as he struggled, and Sirius held onto both his wrists tightly to stop James from hitting him. Sirius looked like he was going to throw up, and he was shaking, but neither of them had noticed me.

"What's happened?" I asked, and both of their gazes snapped to me, both of them looking slightly concerned, although James quickly went back to anger. He turned back to Sirius, who'd loosened his grip, and slapped him again.

"So you didn't tell him about us then? Who else are you secretly snogging? Peter? Lily? Snivellus?" Realisation dawned on me as Sirius put his head in his hands, as though he was trying to steady himself. James was dating Sirius, or something like that, and they'd never said. Sirius had been lying to us both.

"I'm sorry!" He choked, and sunk to the floor dejectedly. James cleared all expression from his face, then fled the common room, leaving me alone with Sirius. Where usually I am the soft one, I felt nothing, and I didn't break down. I walked over to the fire, and ignored Sirius' calls, staring blankly into the fire.

"Remus," he croaked as he came and sat next to me. I turned to look at him, feeling empty.

"Why did you do it?" I asked in a monotone.

"I... had been "dating" James for, um, a month or so before you... Um, and I did like him, but I was starting to think that it wasn't quite right, and I knew that I liked you... It was all just a mess, I wanted to break it off with James, but then I thought that maybe he'd say something, and if he found out he'd think that I chose you over him..." he had the decency to look ashamed. I waited for a moment, but when he didn't say anything else, I went up to the dormitory and fell straight to sleep.

* * *

The next day I decided not to bring it up, but when I went down to breakfast, nobody was there. Nobody had been in the dormitory either, and despite myself, I wondered where they all were.

I found out soon enough, when Professor McGonagall came and took me out of my first lesson. Upon arriving at her office, I saw that Peter, James and Sirius were already there, all standing as far away from each other as possible. It was only when McGonagall sat us all down in a row that I noticed that all three of them looked severely bruised.

"Lupin, I have already had a short talk with these three, and brought you here as it appears that you were somehow involved in the cause of the incident that happened in the early hours of this morning."Confused, I looked across at everyone. Sirius was looking sheepish, while James and Peter both looked seriously peeved.

"I'm sorry, Professor," I stammered, "I'm not quite sure what you mean."

"Very well. Whatever the meaning behind all this trouble, it's none of my business. But I believe you, Lupin, ought to be informed of what has happened, and all of you shall find out what your punishments are.

"First of all, this morning at four o'clock, Professor Dumbledore came to inform me that Argus Filch had caught three of my students out of bed, down by the forbidden forest, duelling," all three of them looked down in shame. "After I woke Madame Pomfrey to heal all their more serious wounds," I was shocked at that part, "I brought them all here to have a talk with them. I tried to find out what exactly has gone on here, and they told me a little, so I sent them to bed, although I suspect that none of them went. They have not been allowed breakfast, and they have sat in silence until they decided they won't argue and interrupt anymore," They were all bright red by then. I suddenly noticed that my face was screwed up, so I relaxed it, and looked back at McGonagall. "They finally told me that you played some part. Now, to the punishments,"

As James sighed, Sirius looked like he was about to argue, but as is eyes caught mine, I glared at him, and he kept quiet.

"Now first, James Potter," James bravely looked up. "Out of bed after hours, inside the forbidden forest, starting a duel out of class, causing harm to Sirius Black. I'd say that you deserve two months of daily detentions, and you shall no longer be on the quidditch team." James was sensible, and stopped himself from talking back, although I could tell he was desperate not to get kicked off the quidditch team.

"Secondly, Sirius Black," the expression on McGonagall's face was quite grave. "You too were out of bed after hours, again inside the forbidden, and you took part in a duel outside of class," there was a pause. "You attacked Pettigrew unprovoked. You caused two fellow students considerable harm. You disrespected Argus Filch," I was shocked at the extent of Sirius' wrongdoing. "You too will receive two months' detention, and your wand will be confiscated. You shall only be doing written work in lessons," Sirius protested, but a stern look from the professor shut him up.

"Peter Pettigrew, you were out of bed, in the forest and caused Sirius some injuries, although that appears to have been self-defense. You shall get two months of detention." Peter seemed quite happy with getting off so lightly.

"Now, Mr Lupin, I don't know what your part was in this incident, and I suspect you may be innocent, but to avoid any more happenings like this one in the future, none of you will be allowed to Hogsmeade. Now, if you'll all kindly get back to lessons..." She stood up, and so did we, and we all filed out of the room. Exchanging silent looks, we all went separate ways, even though we all had the same lesson.


	2. Part 2

At lunch that day, we all sat together in awkward silence, and I think it would have been better if we'd just kept away from one another. Sirius kept trying to catch my eye, but I just ignored him and ate my dinner. I noticed he spent pretty much the entire time glowering at Peter though. I wanted to ask them what exactly had gone on, but I didn't want to be the first one to talk, so I kept quiet.

Lessons were really tense. As in all lessons, everyone took it for granted that we would all sit together, so people started asking questions when we all started to sit in the far corners of the classrooms, but I just brushed them all off. I didn't even know why I was avoiding Peter, but Peter seemed pretty intent on dodging me, so I just went with it. Technically, James didn't do anything wrong, but I still felt betrayed by him... Perhaps because he had Padfoot first.

Despite the tension of our situation, when Sirius didn't come back to sleep in the dormitory, James asked me if I'd seen him.

"No," I said. His forehead creased. I took this break in the silence between us as an opportunity.

"So, what actually happened yesterday?" I was sitting on the edge of my bed, as was he on his. He ran his hand through his hair, ruffling it up, and he didn't look straight at me as he spoke.

"I hadn't come back to the common room after the, uh, thing, and I was trying to dodge Filch, but I didn't have my invisibility cloak with me, so it was quite tricky. I went outside because he rarely checks the grounds, and I just... walked around. I don't know, but the time went quite quickly, and pretty soon it was really late, or early, uh, and when I saw Sirius chasing after me, I, well the only way I could've run, really, is into the forbidden forest... When he caught up with me, I just, I tripped him up so that I could get away, but he threw a spell at me, and it kind of turned into a duel.

"At some point Sirius noticed that Wormtail had followed him, and he started attacking him, because Peter... I think he knew everything, and when you were, um, missing from lunch... He asked me to get something from the dormitory, because he knew, er, where you..." I looked down at my hands. So it was Peter's fault. That was why he was avoiding me; in case I blamed him... James certainly seemed bitter, glaring at Peter as he watched from his corner of the room.

"Okay." I didn't really know what else could be said. There really was not a thing that is supposed to be said in that kind of situation. I turned to Peter, "You don't think there would have been a better way of letting us all know, that maybe would have been, um, easier?" Peter turned pink. I didn't suppose he would have been able to put it nicely; he wasn't particularly eloquent.

"So where do you think he is?" asked James. I thought for a moment.

"Is the map gone?" I asked him. He got up and checked his trunk, where we usually keep it because people don't tend to look there.

"No, it's here," said James as he unfolded it, "Why didn't I think of checking the map?" I assumed he was talking to himself, and didn't answer.

We all crowded round the map and scanned it for signs of Sirius. It only took a few moments before we spotted him inside the shrieking shack.

"You'd think he'd chose a place to hide that we wouldn't find him," mumbled Peter, and me and James looking at each other, knowing that Sirius would definately want us to find him. He'd been trying to get our attention all day.

We all set off, under protection of the cloak, towards the shrieking shack. Peter was clumsy that he stumbled a few times, but luckily he was small enough that the colak kept him covered. Surprisingly, we didn't encounter any teachers on the way, even though James had put down the map in the dormitory and forgotten to pick it up. We ducked out from under the cloak as we approached the whomping willow, then Peter transformed into his rat form to push the knot that froze the willow, and one by one we filed inside.

At the end of the passage as we walked into the shrieking shack, Sirius transformed from the dog form he was in to his human appearance. There was an awkward silence, and then James turned to me and said, "Okay let's go." I was confused. Hadn't we specifically come looking for Sirius?

"What?" I asked.

"We came to check he was okay, and he's fine. Now, I'm going to leave, and I suggest you do too, but don't let me hold you back if you want to..." he trailed off. He glared at Sirius before leaving with Peter in tow. Sirius reached out and put his hand on my shoulder, but I brushed him off without acknowledging him, and left. I could hear Sirius following me as I wandered along the passage, but I didn't turn around. Outside, I could see in the moonlight that Peter and James had waited for me.

"Remus!" I heard Sirius call, but still I ignored him. We turned our backs on him and started in the direction of the castle, until Sirius shouted after us again.

"Remus, the moon!" I turned, and the full moon glared down at me, and I cursed myself for letting myself forget as I began to slip away...

* * *

I woke up lying at the foot of a tree on the edge of the forbidden forest, my leg aching badly, as there were deep bite marks in it. Probably Sirius. I looked around for him, and saw a few feet away that him and James were lying asleep in the grass with their backs to each other. As I went to wake them up, I scanned them for any injuries that I might have caused, but there was nothing major, just some scrapes and scratches.

"Hey" mumbled James as I helped him to his feet, and then to my surprise, James held out his hand to Sirius and pulled him up. We stood still for a moment, and then I asked where Peter was.

"He scampered off somewhere when you turned," said Sirius, and James nodded.

"Do you want to know what happened?" asked James. I didn't ever want to know whenever I changed, unless it was something really important, so I didn't know why he asked. I shook my head.

We walked back up to the castle together in silence, but this silence was more companionable than it was before. We went up to the common room to rest after that exhaustive night, and it was too late to have breakfast anyway. Peter wasn't there, but since it was Sunday we thought perhaps he'd be in the library. It didn't really matter anyway.

"So..." said Sirius, shifting self consciously from one foot to the other as me and James sat down. "Are we... okay?" I exchanged a look with James, and he gestured for me to answer.

"Um," I said, "I'm still really really upset with you," Sirius nodded anxiously. "But I think we can be friends again," I looked at James and he nodded.

"Yeah," he said, "We all can. But it will take a while to forgive you for what you did..." Sirius looked at his feet sheepishly, and I felt myself smile. It was going to be okay again, at some point.

James smiled too, and when Sirius looked up, he grinned, looking relieved.


	3. Part 3

For years and years, we all pretended to be perfectly okay, but there were still some problems, as when somebody young and naive has been betrayed for the first time, it takes forever to get over. It wasn't until James started dating Lily Evans during our seventh year that I realised how much it had affected the whole group, and it was like a dark cloud that hung overhead had finally passed.

* * *

"Hey, you guys!" James hurried towards us grinning in a way that didn't fit with his usually calm and mature demeanor. "I have something really awesomely fantastic to tell you!" Sirius raised one eyebrow at me.

"It had better be good. You've built up our expectations now, and we don't want to be disappointed," Sirius drawled. James ignored his sarcastic tone and ushered us towards the Gryffindor common room. Once inside, he sat us down around the fire, him wobbling around excitedly on the edge of his seat. He looked bursting with pure joy, like a child who has been promised a chocolate frog.

"What is it? Spit it out," Peter clamoured.

"Alright," James had to take a breath before he was able to speak coherently. "I am now officially dating Evans, I mean, Lily. IAskedHerOutAndSheSaidYes!" He smiled so wide that he began to look slightly manic and creepy. I smiled back.

"That's brilliant!" I exclaimed, and they just looked at me. I guessed they weren't used to me speaking up. But everyone was smiling, and I think that everyone else could sense the weight that had been lifted from out friendship.

"That is brilliant," said Sirius, looking bemused. "I thought... I mean, are you straight now?" There was an awkward pause, then James stammered something nonsensical. "Huh?" asked Sirius as James turned red.

"Yeah, I was always... Um. I guess that was just a thing..." Sirius looked at the floor, so I couldn't tell what he was thinking. I thought he'd said that he'd realised he didn't like James in that way?

"That's not important," I cut in, "We're all pleased for you." James grinned sheepishly, mumbling a vague 'yeah' before getting up and wandering out of the common room. Peter went up to the dorm and I followed him, leaving Sirius alone by the fire.

* * *

I woke with a start after falling of the bed in my sleep. That was weird, I never fell out of bed... I then realised that the shadow standing over me was actually Sirius, who bent down and whispered, "Are you alive?"

"Yeah," I propped myself up on my elbows, rubbing my head where it had hit the floor. "What was that?" I hissed.

"I was trying to wake you up, but you were really fast asleep... I need to talk, can we go to the common room?" I nooded and sat up, rubbing my eyes sleepily and following Sirius down the stairs. We sat close to the fire, as at night the stone walls radiated cold, and I was shivering.

"What is it you wanted to..." I yawned widely, "...Talk about?" Sirius stared into the fire twiddling his thumbs. I was to tired to be concerned, so I just waited for an explanation as to why I had been woken up so early.

"Do you, um, remember two years ago, when we...?" I was more awake by then and sat up straight, not expecting Sirius to bring that up.

Dryly, I said, "Obviously. It was only one of the most significant events of my life. Why?"

"Um... Well I was thinking... You know, James has, like, moved on or something, but I was wondering, well, do you still... Like me?" I was even more shocked.

"Um." Was the only thing I could manage as millions of words tumbled through my head. "I think... What?" SIrius blushed.

"Never mind," He muttered, "Just wanted to know if you're still... Never mind," I started towards the stairs, but I got up and stopped him.

"Wait. I was just," I rubbed my eyes,"Surprised. Do you mean... You want to get back together?"

"Only if you're... If you like... Still gay?"

"Um, yeah. So we could, like, be "boyfriends" or something?" We both blushed, blinking profusely as Sirius timidly nodded. I grinned at him and he looked straight back at me, his dark grey eyes filling my vision as the space between us decreased.

* * *

The next morning was a Saturday, and I slept in late, what with being up most of the early morning. When I did wake, The other three boys were no where to be seen. I got dressed and hurried down to breakfast, where the remaining scraps of food lay cold on the platters. They were all their though, probably waiting for me. I walked at sat next to Sirius, squeezing his hand quickly under the table as I helped myself to the last few pieces of toast. James, as always, was cheerfully talking everyone's ears off as he rambled on about Lily Evans.

Halfway through my toast, Sirius whispered to me that we ought to tell them that we were 'together'. I nodded without looking up at him, polishing off my toast as quickly as possible before interrupting James' spiel.

"Um, James," James didn't hear, and carried on talking. "Hey Prongs," Sirius said loudly.

"Huh?"

"I... Me and Remus have something to tell you," James' brow furrowed, and Peter watched him intently.

"What? You... You do?"

"Yeah," Sirius looked at me and nodded minutely.

"Um," I said. "We, um, are kind of, um,"

"Spit it out, for Merlin's sake!" said James playfully, his tone not matching the anxious expression on his face.

"Well, it's just, we're together, um 'dating' or something," James looked surprisingly relieved.

"Wow, I thought it was something serious for a moment," he took a bite of cold bacon. SIrius looked at me, surprised.

"That's it?" he said to James, who nodded calmly.

"Yeah,"

"But..." Sirius looked annoyed that James didn't care, but I was really pleased.

"So you're not annoyed then?" I said. James smiled and shook his head.

"I'm over what happened, okay? You two are great together." He went on chomping cheerfully. I smiled encouragingly at Sirius, but he just scowled and left the table. Surprised, I followed him out, waving behind me when Peter called goodbye.

I called after him, and he turned to see who it was before snapping his gaze around quickly and speeding up. I nearly caught up to him on a staircase, but just as he was about to stop and wait for me, my foot went through the step in the middle, the one that I forgot to jump over in my hurry to catch up to Sirius. He came down the staircase and helped me out of the trap.

"Are you okay?" he asked, and I nodded gingerly, shaking a bit from the shock. His concerned expression hardened, and he seemed to rethink his previous decision to talk to me, drifting off silently, indifferent to my calls.


End file.
